TALLINN — Estonian cinema has hit a milestone with the premiere of “The Temptation of St. Tony” at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 24.
It’s the first Estonian movie to premiere at America’s most important independent film festival. Selected from 1,022 other films, it now competes with another 14 international movies for the festival’s top [...]

When I first came to Estonia in 1991, I tried to be a chameleon. I practiced drinking vodka before noon, kept neatly torn strips of Postimees in my bathroom, and forced myself to eat carp, even though it’s a bottom-dweller that tastes like mud. As the nation developed, these habits quickly disappeared. Yet others remained. [...]

TALLINN — The former CEO of Arco Vara’s Latvian branch filed a bankruptcy claim for his employer on Jan. 21 after demanding 38 million krooni (€2.4 million).
The filing brings into question: is the biggest real estate companies in the Baltics is bankrupt, or merely in a nasty pay dispute?
Former CEO Indrek Porila filed bankruptcy claim [...]

RIGA — Latvian national airline airBaltic has been on the up and up throughout January, adding numerous routes and even taunting its struggling competitor Estonian Air.
On Jan. 18 the airline won the “Phoenix Award” from the trade magazine Air Transport World for turning its financial situation around and increasing passengers in 2009 despite the economic [...]

TALLINN — Despite the financial crisis, Tallinn’s city council voted to increase the salary of Vice Chairman Katrin Saks to 26,000 krooni (€1,661) on Thursday.
The vote more than doubles Saks’ original salary. Previously the vice chairman received a total monthly salary of 9,000 (€575). The council chair position also got a raise from 30,300 krooni [...]

TALLINN — The Estonian government plans to borrow 13 billion krooni (€823 million) within next three years to keep its fiscal deficit within Maastricht criteria.
Although the Estonian national government criticized the Tallinn municipality for its plans to take a 357 million krooni (€22.8 million) loan, Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi said at a press conference [...]

VILNIUS — The Vilnius municipal government reversed past policy on Wednesday and agreed to issue a permit for a gay rights march this spring, a decision supported by the U.S.
Previous attempts to hold gay pride events in the Lithuanian capital have been barred by city authorities, who cited security concerns. In 2007 the Vilnius city [...]

RIGA — Former Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis has said that he is against topping the current government so close to national elections, a position that puts him at odds with Ainārs Šlesers, co-chairman of the Latvia’s First/Latvia’s Way coalition party.
Godmanis, who resigned early last year after the People’s Party and the Greens and Farmers Union [...]

VILNIUS — Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė agreed Friday morning to appoint the government’s nomination for a new foreign minister, Audronius Ažubalis.
Ažubalis, a member of the Lithuanian parliament since 1996 and the chair of the Seimas Foreign Affairs Committee was nominated by the leading party of the ruling coalition, the Homeland Union/Christian Democrats on Monday after [...]

TALLINN — Estonia’s Ministry of Justice launched this week a web page with the list of  those parents who refuse to pay alimony hoping to force them to take responsibility.
The page is located on the justice ministry’s website and includes with the parents’ names and personal identification code. Fifteen names, all men, have been posted [...]